The entire catalog of AIX Records, including the 5.1 surround mixes, is available for downloading. You can choose to download files from this site or visit our partner site iTrax.com to access our HD digital files.

ARTICLES

iTunes Match in the iCloud Doesn't Add Up

The iTunes Match program announced by Steve Jobs at the WWDC conference last week makes no sense for small "indie" labels or those dedicated to physical goods. And it hardly makes any sense to small audiophile labels that use other Digital Music Retailers in addition to iTunes.

The iTunes Match idea is that Apple will replace ALL of your iTunes library with "high quality" 256 kbps versions of every tunes you have and populate them
throughout your devices such an iPod, iPad, MacBook and Mac Pro. The interesting part however, is that it will do this for ALL of the tunes in your library including those that might be there without having been legitimately acquired. By including tunes acquired from sources other than iTunes (like ripping your older CDs or copying a friend's library or visiting any one of many "bit torrent" file sharing sites), Apple seems to be endorsing the concept of "if you have a tune, we'll include a better quality copy for you to use throughout your digital world." Hardly good news for small specialty labels. Many have questioned the wisdom of letting Apple "match" their libraries across all of their devices.

As the owner of a small audiophile label, one might imagine that piracy wouldn't be a problem...but think again. I was shocked to find that even my 3D Blu-ray discs were available on a variety of "bit torrent" download sites. The quality of the video and the audio is not going to be what a customer would experience if they played the original Blu-ray discs, but it is still troubling that a small company dedicated to quality cannot count on people being honest in their acquisition of our recordings.

The whole question of piracy has been debated to death. But as Apple moves to implement their $25 annual iTunes Match program, they will be the only financial winners.

SPECTRAGRAPHS

EXPERTS AGREE

"I worry about sound quality and old ways of the industry. Up-sampled CDs, play-everything consumer machines and lawyers killed the DVDA. The tragic consequence was much like humanity creating the first wheel and breaking it apart so it would not roll away. Many titles in vaults have sonic losses from compression and sampling that can’t be recovered. Yet, surely, there will be re-issues even though high resolution will not improve them. Some reviewers use analyzers to spot these marketed imposters."

"It's good to know there are still some labels left dedicated to making high quality surround recordings. I applaud you for educating people about what is and isn't HD (analog tape/vinyl being an example that isn't HD)."